Neill Blomkamp’s idea for his new sci-fi film “Elysium” came to him in 2009 as he completed his first feature, “District 9.” He wanted to explore the haves and have-nots through the realm of science-fiction, but it was still “very loose, unguided and unfocused.”

A few months later, it clicked. Blomkamp was inspired by an image that hung on his wall, of artist Syd Mead’s rendition of the Stanford Torus space station (a proposed space habitat, with its own natural environment and agricultural system).

He thought, “maybe the rich live on that station, and that separation of wealth from the Earth.” It led to a more concrete plan for a film that he developed and wrote for about one year.

Working with a $115 million budget and a cast that includes Sharlto Copley (star of “District 9”), Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, Blomkamp filmed “Elysium” in the second half of 2011 in two locations: Mexico City and his hometown, Vancouver.

In talking with Blomkamp about “Elysium,” he’s eager to share credit with the creative members of his team, including artist TyRuben Ellingson, who designed Copley’s black hawk helicopter, and special-effects artist Cameron Waldbauer, who designed a futuristic Bugatti space shuttle. As with “District 9,” Blomkamp brought in WETA Workshop, which designed and built robots, weapons and hundreds of other props, and Image Engine, which handled the film’s visual effects.

Blomkamp, 33, a “massive squash player” and sports-car enthusiast who is obsessed with branches of science such as transhumanism, talked with the Journal about “Elysium.” This is the second part of our three-part interview, in which he discusses the thematic elements of the film. (Read part one here and part three here.) Warning, there are some spoiler details below.

“Elysium” takes on topics of class, health care, and immigration. What prompted you to address these issues?

I don’t know if “addressing issues” is the right way of putting it, because if you go about things with the mindset where you wake up one morning and go, “I’m going to address this important political issue,” you shouldn’t be making popcorn blockbuster films. You should go make a documentary or get involved in politics or do something else. But I think any artist at some level is going to have political thoughts somehow, or at least observations. If you’re not observing the world around you, in some sense you’re not really an artist because then that means you’re just replicating other people’s stuff or, I don’t even know what you’re doing. So, it’s impossible for me to not look around the world and observe things and let them seep into the back of my subconscious and then have them not affect the artwork that you make.

I think growing up in South Africa, and then moving to Canada, I’m just genuinely interested in the difference between the first world and the third world, immigration, and how the new, globalized world is beginning to operate. All of those things run through my mind a lot.

Do you think of this film in terms of First World vs. Third World rather than 1% vs. 99%?

Kimberley French

Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) in ‘Elysium’

They’re not exactly the same. The 1% lexicon of phrases and terminology is incredibly American. That’s very specific to America. This film isn’t really that. It’s much more international. The 1% is a catchphrase that is thrown around at the moment. You could go back to the feudal ages and you have people living in castles and you have a thousand serfs on your land that were considered your property. This is nothing new at all. That kind of separation between power and wealth and then the working class, the poverty-stricken class, has been around for millennia. What’s happening now with this globalized planet is there are other ingredients being mixed into that. The way that those population groups move, like how Africa is predominantly poverty-stricken, and North America predominantly has money — whether America is in a recession or not isn’t the point, the point is the glass of America appears a lot fuller than the glass of Africa. As those reservoirs of wealth equalize, the pockets of wealth diminish and the poorer areas increase in wealth, a lot of really interesting stuff happens. Part of that is the rich try to preserve what they have more, while the poor want wealth more at the same time. The movie is really about that.

[Warning: Spoiler details] In the case of Max (Damon), the tipping point is when he gets very sick. He needs access to health care that’s only on Elysium.

I wanted to inject the concept that when you live in a country that has a high level of income, you probably are going to have access to longevity, and access to medicine and to medical equipment that’s going to help you attain a longer life span. As that wealth per capita drops off and it goes lower and lower, you find longevity dropping as well. So a way to explain the situation in a very innate way is that the people that have money tend to have better health care, and that’s an idea I wanted the film to display. That if you go knocking on some wealthy country’s door, you can possibly end up living a little bit longer than growing up in Sudan or some slum in Harare in Zimbabwe.

[Warning: Spoiler details] Another interesting concept in the film is ownership of data. The residents of earth have no privacy and their personal data is available to police. Max gains the advantage when he’s able to steal key data from a resident of Elysium. Power lies in who holds the data.

Kimberley French

Matt Damon in ‘Elysium’

On one level, to some degree what you’re saying is true, which is that I do think with power and wealth comes control of information. So, that’s definitely a theme that has worked its way into the film. A very true and interesting concept. But the second one, which is equally interesting in a completely different way, is the idea of transhumanism and the idea that we’re at the door of human beings actually changing. As we unlock the genetic code that makes us what we are and the way that technology is going to begin fusing itself with us. The richer you become, if you fast-forward 50 years from now and you look at the wealthiest nations on earth, they will have human beings that are very intertwined with technology in a way that the poverty-stricken areas will not be. I wanted to make that part of the film too. It’s like access to medical care is the same as access to information. That transhumanism part of it, the way that people who live on Elysium can upload information straight into their consciousness, and that degree of integration was definitely something I wanted to get in there.

Why did you choose the year 2154?

Well, the movie isn’t meant to be strictly speculative science fiction. If somebody asked me if this was how I actually believe the world would be like in 2154, the answer would be no. Like there wouldn’t actually be a space station with rich people because the whole movie is metaphor and allegory for rich and poor. So since the science fiction isn’t specifically science and it’s more metaphor, I thought I would just pick a date that felt like enough time had gone by that people could have built a space station and actually live on it for one or two generations. That date just seemed kind of natural.

[Warning: Spoiler details] Max seems to go through a journey similar to Wikus in “District 9” — something in his DNA has changed and he is desperate. Circumstances turn him into a wanted man and as he seeks medical help, he sees he can help others. You’re obsessed with transhumanism, but your stories are full of humanity. Ultimately, no matter how scientifically modified humans become, are they in the end essentially their relationships to each other? Or are the two mutually necessary for progress?

I don’t think they are connected, in fact I think the problems we deal with today – the ones Elysium addresses, are created because of human (mammal) DNA, and I think the only way to save us, is to engineer ourselves out of it — change our basic makeup, which includes things like the notion of humanity, and how compassion and other hormone-related triggers affect the globe.

Check back in for Part 3 of the interview with “Elysium” writer-director Neill Blomkamp. For more on the film, click here. Follow @barbarachai

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.